UK: Is nothing sacred? Now Church pensions threatened

The Church of England has warned members of its pension scheme that it may have to sacrifice its final salary pension scheme.
Thu, 16 Feb 2012
By Charlotte Beugge

Members of the Church of England pension scheme have been warned that they may lose their right to a retirement income based on final salary, it has emerged.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the final salary scheme could be replaced. It says that a document submitted to the church's general synod last week said it was considering moving to a hybrid scheme where both the employer and employee share the risk.

With final salary or other defined benefit pensions, the risk is entirely on the employer to provide the promised retirement income. With defined contribution or money purchase schemes, the employee is at risk of their own fund not growing by enough to produce a reasonable retirement income. the rest